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Volt meter to your bike

I have few things on my V-Strom 650. And because I want to do long trips, it’s good to keep an eye on the battery from time to time. As such, I decided to add a voltmeter. Here is how I did it.

I’ve purchased a voltmeter for about $5 from eBay. Just make sure it’s waterproof. I chose the color of the LED to be yellow, just to match the yellow dash. I decided to cut off the small ears from the sides. This is what I was left with.

After adding some more extension cables as seen in image above, I’ve threaded the cable through the dashboard and the plastic that’s holding it. Looks like this

To have the voltmeter start when the bike starts, I decided to mount it to the horn. This way, it only gets power then the I power up the bike and it’s only 0.5v off.

I have added the negative pole to a screw I found on the handlebar. Could have been any screw for that matter. It works.

And this is the final result. I used some double sided tape to fix it to the bike. How well it holds ? Well, since I’ve mounted the voltmeter, I’ve been through rain and 40+ degrees temperatures. The bike stood in rain for days and stood in bittering sun for hours. I’ve been through some rough roads and 8+ hours of continuous rides. Never had a problem, never moved, never fell since the first mount. What tape did I use ? I think it’s an ordinary double sided tape, very very thin in width and unbranded.

3 thoughts on “Volt meter to your bike”

Unfortunately, at the time of planning, I didn’t think this through and the wire was too short to get it back to battery. I was lazy at the time and found a faster solution. If I’ll see any signs of electrolysis, I’ll change the wire and connect it to the battery.